Nocta-Aeterna:Is there an elf, flirting with a sheep in the background?

*sigh* The dalish in this Game were Welsh, Irish and Scottish, its a Welsh joke. (I get tired of the Welsh jokes, atleast have somthing to back up the things, like Americas obesity problem. The Ssheep joke shouldnt even exist.)

rees263:Nothing seems to have gone right for the DA2 release does it? All the better for us to laugh at it!

Signature Editions lacking everything but the manual.Bioware dev/employee artificially boosting the games score on an insignificant site, though others may disagree on that latter statement.More glitches than the first game ever had, including Zombie-Origin character glitches.AND, let's not get started on the rush-job development cycle.

Yeah, that sheep wasn't the only thing that was about to get uncomfortable.

Nocta-Aeterna:Is there an elf, flirting with a sheep in the background?

*sigh* The dalish in this Game were Welsh, Irish and Scottish, its a Welsh joke. (I get tired of the Welsh jokes, atleast have somthing to back up the things, like Americas obesity problem. The Ssheep joke shouldnt even exist.)

Jokes about more rural people getting off with livestock are common the world over. It's just city folk being mad jelly that Wales hasn't been completely covered in concrete.

As much as I like Dragon Age 2 and as much of a Bioware fanboy as I may be, I am quite saddened by the events surrounding the game. The "secret" DRM, the "reviews", the whole banning fiasco, etc. Makes me worry about Bioware. I always gave them the benefit of the doubt, but they're really pushing it this time. The fact that DA2 was a rush job doesn't help either. Sure, a Bioware rush job is still better than 95% of games on the market, but it kinda feels like a trend that I don't want to see continued...

this isnt my name:I get tired of the Welsh jokes, atleast have somthing to back up the things, like Americas obesity problem.

It's funny, because I have this crazy feeling you haven't even been to America, so you only have news outlets to rely on for the "obesity problem".

The definition for obesity used in the US is based entirely on weight-height ratio. Not body fat percentage, or anything reasonable. Most bodybuilders are considered "obese" under the US definition. Even though people like to talk about how "One fourth of Americans are obese", I'm sitting in a room of 40 people, and not a one of them looks in the least bit fat.

It's rather amazing just how much goodwill Bioware has managed to burn through over the space of one game. I'm less than certain the sheer volume of ire being cast in their direction is really deserved, or how much might have been overlooked if the game said ire was orbiting hadn't been developed in ways that made the "loyalist" fanbase feel betrayed.

Callate:It's rather amazing just how much goodwill Bioware has managed to burn through over the space of one game. I'm less than certain the sheer volume of ire being cast in their direction is really deserved, or how much might have been overlooked if the game said ire was orbiting hadn't been developed in ways that made the "loyalist" fanbase feel betrayed.

Hopefully ME3 will earn some forgiveness.

Well, a reputation takes a lifetime to build, a moment to ruin....

Bioware staff must be pissed at EA for rushing them into release though. Not that this excuses alot of their other questionable behaviors. Awesome comic. I've been following this train wreak story from early on, so it struck a cord with me :D

Nocta-Aeterna:Is there an elf, flirting with a sheep in the background?

*sigh* The dalish in this Game were Welsh, Irish and Scottish, its a Welsh joke. (I get tired of the Welsh jokes, atleast have somthing to back up the things, like Americas obesity problem. The Sheep joke shouldnt even exist.)

However I found this amusing all of BWs recent PR fails in one image.

I didn't even relate Sheepx jokes with the Elf in the background until I read your post. I was thinking more along the lines that the Elf must know Zevran and his strange 'tastes'.

Hawke works for Bioware's PR department? I thought he was only working as an actor in the game. Looks like I'm going to have to be careful when talking about Bioware now. Don't want a mage/warrior/rogue/champion-of-Kirkwall appearing on my doorstep anytime soon.

Hmm. I'll admit, the PR fiascos that I've witnessed so far have been wryly amusing to me, but in terms of negative impact to the actual product? Origins had some massive bugs right out of the gate, including a fairly substantial memory leak that eventually extended load times between zones so much that you could brew and drink an entire pot of coffee before the zone would finish loading, plus the usual slew of random crashes to desktop. Dragon Age 2 on the other hand has crashed all of 3 times in the I've lost track of just how many hours I've been playing that damn game but it's a lot that I've been playing it, and I'm not entirely sure that one of those instances was the fault of the program and not my computer itself. Apart from that, the only in-game glitches that I've encountered were:

1. A couple of times[1] the first line that an NPC delivers in a conversation didn't "trigger" somehow, and it jumped right to Hawke's response options.

2. One sidequest apparently completed but didn't leave my active quest list (the one with Fetch).

3. I think one conversation with Merrill in her home triggered too early, but I might be misinterpreting it.

From a coding standpoint I would definitely contend that Dragon Age II is a more solid initial product than Origins, that had all sorts of bugs, including real whoppers that rendered entirely playstyles ineffective. Still, the PR miss-steps are pretty darn hilarious.

[1] And by that I mean literally twice, once in a conversation with Bethany and once with Fenris. In both cases reloading from an earlier save (the last autosave for me) convinced it to play that missing first bit of the conversation.

Which is odd, considering the game crashes every 2 hours for me no matter what I do. It is a graphical issue, since the error seems to be talking about the display drivers. Which is odd, since 1) my drivers are all up to date, and 2) my card is the exact same card the box recommends I use. Doesn't matter if I'm playing at the lowest settings, or the highest. It crashes.

ChangesWe were nearing the end of active work on design content for Dragon Age... there was still a lot more bug fixing/polishing/ and fill-content generation ahead but the core plot/writing and level design was finished. My work was rapidly shifting into that of reviewing what the team had put together.

Discussion on Dragon Age 2 began around this time and looking ahead I knew that I wasn't going to be satisfied with what Dragon Age 2 would be. Party control/tactical combat are huge factors in my enjoyment of a role-playing game as is adopting the role of the hero (i.e., customizing my character). I was fairly certain Dragon Age would transition towards more of a Mass Effect experience, which while enjoyable is not the type of role-playing game I play. Could I be the lead designer on such a title? Certainly... though if I were going to work on a game adopting a set-in-stone protagonist I'd rather work on something lighter, like a shooter.

Through a series of circumstances it was decided that with my not wanting to participate on Dragon Age 2 it was time to transition in a new lead to finish the Dragon Age console versions and ramp up for Dragon Age 2. I moved out of an active lead role though I stayed on for several months performing quality assurance and helping with the transition. I completed the game several times during this period and racked up the second or third highest bug totals... so, still busy but doing something quite different.

After this was over and the content locked down I took a sabbatical.

Not rushed, it was intended to be the way it is. I love me some Mass Effect, and I love me some Dragon Age: Origins, and I loved them more as different games.

The Gentleman:...And this is why PC gaming is dying: because you don't have to deal with this shit with the consoles.

-cough- STEAM. -cough cough-

Yeah, I don't know if it would avoid the whole forum banning incident (because you have to register an EA account regardless), but I'm relatively certain SecuROM doesn't affect Steam versions of the game.

Also, I'm pretty sure I pre-ordered the game, so why would a review that came out AFTER the game's launch bother me?

2. One sidequest apparently completed but didn't leave my active quest list (the one with Fetch).

Yep known glitch just as the exiled prince 360 achievements not unlocking on the x-box(they are on your bioware profile) plus on act 3 there is a glitch of a sidequest not starting at all (some girl you need to rescue on wounded coast(most people think the immobile npc at the top right corner is the problem.

I spend 40 hours in this game in 5 days, starting my second playthrough now feel the different playstyles (and achievement hunting). Not many games i played made me not wanting to quit.

I just hope Bioware gets their shit together for Mass Effect 3... Starting to get worried a bit.

The Gentleman:...And this is why PC gaming is dying: because you don't have to deal with this shit with the consoles.

Do I even have to go get the image? I think we all know what it looks like and what it says by now. Just pretend I went and posted it here. And why would I do that concerning this statement? Because not every game is published by EA or Ubisoft, so not every PC game requires you to deal with that shit either.